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Review: Bradley Fowler & Wesley Alley’s THE VOICES

Cinema fanatics are just three weeks away from the release of The Voices, the feature length film from directors Bradley Fowler and Wesley Alley. Also written by Fowler, The Voices follows estranged sisters who are forced to reconnect in the wilderness. When the relationship ends with her fiance, Grace gets away from the drama by retreating to her sister Catherine’s remote home. Upon arrival, Grace realizes that Catherine is struggling with paranoid schizophrenia, a disorder that drove their mother to take her own life. While Grace struggles with the news, she starts to discover other disturbing details about the cabin and terrible little secrets that will threaten her life. Amanda Markowitz, Victoria Matlock, Juliana Sada, Brendan Sexton III, Jessica Sonneborn, Bradley Fowler and scream queen Lin Shaye star in The Voices, a majorly sophisticated and daunting picture from Through Line Films and Three Tails Productions.

The Voices sets its tone after scaling a budding forest, establishing a huge cabin as the central location and exploring the damaged relationship between the two sisters. Being in such a remote location with only each other as companions, you just know it’s going to be a powder-keg for disaster. When Catherine’s paranoia starts to manifest, viewers won’t know if it’s a figment of her own mental illness or if something sinister is plaguing the cabin; especially after the sisters play with an ouija board and start suffering from nightmares. I think it’s also due to the confessionals filmed in Grace’s closet that start to make The Voices feel like a genuine horror film, but near the end of the movie, the script gets flipped and The Voices becomes a seriously dark drama and emotional thriller more than a scary movie. Perhaps this is a prime example that seeing your family disintegrate before your very eyes is worse than any masked killer.

The upcoming film being distributed by Cinedigm and Kaleidoscope was produced by Alley, Fowler, Markowitz, Victoria Matlock, James Christopher Fechser with co–producers John W. Bosher, Chris Charles and Juri Koll with executive producer Andy Wizenberg. It also features cinematography by Ryan McCoy and editing by Taylor D. Conroy. As I production, I really can’t find a critique at all that leans in the negative side. This movie was… actually pretty perfect when examined behind-the-scenes. It seems that everyone on crew was professional and contained above average knowledge on how to make a film and the acting between the two sisters was incredible; real chemistry on both sides of the camera. I’m trying to find anything to harp on, but the only reason The Voices loses a point is simply because it’s not horror enough. It’s something much deeper than that and taps into the worst fears of the sisters in truly cinematic and therapeutic way.

Is the relationship between Grace and Catherine too far gone? Is something worse at work? What else is Catherine hiding? Rent or buy The Voices to find out. Final Score: 9 out of 10.

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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